Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[ChairmanPoo]

I assumed part of it was also related to firearm avaiability in the US. I mean, if I was a cop and I was constantly worried that a suspect, any suspect, is likely carrying, I'd likely be trigger happy to a lesser or greater extent as well...

[Frumple]

Eh... you hear about good cops pretty constantly, from what I've seen, actually. It's just local level stuff. County paper, regional news station, that kind of thing, and generally not really about main line profession stuff, but initiatives of other sorts (working with kids, doing fundraisers for whatever, helping organize or escort events, and so on).

Even beyond the psych aspects the media goes nuts trying to gag on, I'd rather think a lot of why you don't hear much about cops that get everyone leaving peacefully after de-escalation and that general thrust of things is because it's, y'know. Their job. Supposed to be basic competence. Ostensibly what they're getting paid for, etc., etc.

When it's seriously out of line stuff -- hostage situations, serial killers, and such -- you hear about cops going above and beyond the call of duty (when things go well anyway). When it's not... you don't. The culture's praise for that is the paycheck and slew of privileges the profession provides, so it's kinda' unsurprising you don't see much explicit praise for what could be crudely put as not shitting the bed. It can be a pretty rough bed to keep from shitting on, at times, but it's still more or less what level of behavior is (or at least should be, given the authority and power they're entrusted with) expected.

S'kinda' like how you generally don't get much news about accountants finishing up that week's accounts receivable, or too much about firefighters that put out the nth house fire where no one got hurt and the fire didn't spread.

[martinuzz]

Putin has condemned the closure of the consulate and auxiliary departments, and has also condemned the subsequent police search of the 3 closed diplomatic locations, calling them 'illegal', and 'an unprecedented act of agression'.

After Trump had ordered the consulate closed, FBI observers noticed black smoke rising from the building. Acording to them this indicated that the Russian staff was burning documents. The FBI had the consulate under surveillance, suspecting several attachees of abusing their diplomatic status to conduct espionage missions.

Russia, foreign minister Lavrov has threatened with 'a hard response'. He says the sole goal of the US is to worsen relations with Russia.

https://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/rusland-dreigt-met-hard-antwoord-op-sluiting-diplomatieke-vestigingen-vs~a4514679/

[WealthyRadish]

Reminds me of a time I saw a slavery apologist who claimed that guaranteed employment for slaves was a good thing.

Just to play devil's advocate, there was an instance of a prominent transatlantic abolitionist (J.A. Collins) who was traveling in Britain to stir outrage abroad about the continuation of slavery in the US, but when demonstrating the meager daily rations and living standards that a typical slave suffered through was met with the awkward realization that the "free" industrial workers in his audience lived in even greater squalor and deprivation than the minimum required by law for southern slaves.

Not trying to defend slavery or that line of argument, but it is important to at least understand where people may have been coming from with the old "slaves were better off" line. I would argue that the modern state of being grateful for employment is evidence of the effects that permanent poverty and a universal dependence on wage labor under capitalism have had, but it is at least darkly humorous that people can think of slavery as being an improvement.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

There's no absolute demarcation between a slave who is legally property and a slave who is legally free but cannot control their own destiny. Nonetheless, both are forms of slavery.

[Paxiecrunchle]

I just want to briefly point out that hardly all Americans are authoritarian even subconsciously. Some of us actually think the system is broken and that shouting and machismo won't fix it, and that treating living things like shit should never be the first option on the table. We just happen to not be in the majority it would seem :-/

There's no absolute demarcation between a slave who is legally property and a slave who is legally free but cannot control their own destiny. Nonetheless, both are forms of slavery.

May I add that to my signature?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Sure.

[Sheb]

You messed up the signature.

[Starver]

Yeah, you seem* to have made a John Hancock-Up with the tagging. 

_{* Comment correct at time of broadcast. ** ICBMs may go down as well as up. *** Your home is at risk if you build it on a volcano. **** Nothing in this warranty precludes the possibility of nobody ever winning a lottery ever again. ***** My God, it's full of stars! ******}

[hector13]

Prob'ly ran out of characters.

[misko27]

The solution when that happens is to strip the quote of the Date & Time and remove the link part.

[Paxiecrunchle]

But those are the best parts as they make the quote easy to find!

[Draignean]

But those are the best parts as they make the quote easy to find!

Then just take out the useless [quot and let the forum sort out your horrendous tags?

[Rolan7]

It's a shame to strip out the metadata, but it does add a layer of mystery.

[Baffler]

Still, it's easy enough to find most sigquotes through the forum search if you really want to track them down. Including the metadata is a waste of space IMO unless it's a link to the forum game/community fortress you're running or something like that.